The United States is the largest e-commerce market in the world, accounting for more than 30% of all cross-border online purchases globally. For any entrepreneur in Latin America or Europe selling physical products, this market is impossible to ignore.
The problem is that the traditional cross-border sales model creates a structural disadvantage for international sellers and U.S. import tariffs have made that even more evident in recent years. In mid-2026, the U.S. Trade Representative proposed additional tariffs on goods from dozens of economies, including the European Union, Mexico, and Argentina, following a Section 301 investigation into forced labor in global supply chains. Because it came from a formal investigation rather than a presidential order, these tariffs are unlikely to drop anytime soon.
How U.S. import tariffs affect the cross-border model
When you sell directly from outside the United States to a U.S. consumer, import tariffs are calculated on the full sale value, including markup, shipping, and insurance, not on the product’s production cost.
That means the more efficient your business is, the bigger the distortion. A product that costs $20 to manufacture and sells for $80 gets taxed on $80, not $20.
The practical result: compressed margins, a less competitive price, and a U.S. customer paying more than they should.
How a U.S. subsidiary helps reduce U.S. import tariffs
The structure that solves this problem is simpler than it sounds: set up a U.S. company and use it as the Importer of Record or Merchant of Record for your operations.
With a U.S. subsidiary, import tariffs get calculated differently, because the whole flow changes. Your U.S. company imports products at production cost plus a reduced margin — not at retail price. That means tariffs are calculated on the real cost value, not on what the end consumer pays.
In practice, you gain two controls you didn’t have before:
- Control over the declared value at import
- Full control over pricing, logistics, and after-sales operations in the U.S. market
How the DDP model works
DDP stands for Delivered Duty Paid. Under this model, products ship directly from your country of origin to the U.S. consumer, without passing through any intermediate distribution center. Your U.S. subsidiary acts as the Importer of Record, files the import declaration, and pays all duties based on the product’s cost, not its retail price.
For the end consumer, the experience is seamless: they receive the product with all costs already included in the purchase price, no surprises at delivery. For you, logistics are faster, import costs are lower, and your commercial data stays shielded from the end customer’s view.
The real benefits in practice
Lower import costs are the most immediate benefit, but not the only one:
- U.S. financial access: a corporate bank account, U.S. payment gateways like Shopify Payments, and the ability to process transactions as a local entity.
- Tax on profit, not revenue: operating costs and product acquisition costs reduce your taxable base.
- Parent-subsidiary optimization: well-structured resale or licensing agreements let you allocate group costs more efficiently.
Worth noting: operating in the U.S. comes with real obligations, such as state Sales Tax, Federal Income Tax, and Transfer Pricing compliance between the parent company and the subsidiary. None of this is out of reach, but it needs to be structured correctly from day one.
What you need to make this work
Running a U.S. subsidiary for cross-border e-commerce has three layers:
- The financial layer: a U.S. company with an EIN, a local bank account, and a payment gateway connected to process USD transactions as a U.S. entity.
- The logistics layer: global carriers like DHL, FedEx, and UPS operating under the DDP model, handling customs clearance and door-to-door duty payments.
- The compliance layer: bookkeeping, accounting, Sales Tax, Federal Tax, and Transfer Pricing managed by people who know U.S. rules.
The structural decision
The U.S. market isn’t closed to outsiders, but today it favors those who operate locally. With tariffs rising, not falling, that advantage only gets bigger.
Starting a U.S. company can be a competitiveness decision, not just a tax one. It’s the difference between selling to the United States and operating in the United States, a difference that shows up in your margin, your customer experience, and your ability to grow sustainably in the largest e-commerce market in the world.